Tuesday, September 11, 2012

I've been searching for a new apartment & it's such a pain in the ass. I've kind of reached my boiling point with it & have been in such an awful mood all day thinking about it. I decided to download some new music & it is amazing how much better I feel. I haven't gotten a bunch of new music in a while so it was time & it was such a good idea! I don't frequently write about music but I'll open up to new horizons because it is one of the great loves of my life.

Isn't it fantastic how music can totally change your life (cheesy but true!) I just discovered Laura Izibor & I am in love. She's got the same kind of vibe as like a John Legend, Alicia Keys, India Arie type. Oddly enough, I found out about her by watching One Tree Hill. I like her extra because I feel like she's all mine. I like to have favorite artists that nobody really knows about because I feel personally attached to them. That's how I feel about John Legend except now everyone knows about him. He's still mine though.

John Legend is the musical love of my life. My college roommate turned me on to him when his first album came out with "Ordinary People" (my 2nd favorite John song ever. If you guess the 1st, you win a prize.) I cried when he played O.P. at his concert & then when I told my mom about it, I cried again. I'm pathetic, what can I say? It's true love.

But the thing about music that I love the most, is the way it makes you feel. Certain songs bring you back to times in your life or remind you of people or places or times & that is what I love about it. There really is a soundtrack to our lives. I love listening to my iTunes & seeing what comes on. I frequently sit in the dark listening to music & close my eyes & see where it brings me. Maybe that sounds weird but I don't care. I also break out into dance parties on a regular basis. Get over it.

Monday, September 3, 2012

Think about this for a second: getting a hand-written note/letter from someone. It's kind of funny to think about because it's really not one of those things you do frequently think about. I'm not talking e-mails or FaceBook messages or texts. Those are nice too but on a completely different not-as-good level. There's a reason why people would write love letters back in the day; "love e-mails" just don't have the same effect.

But the reason I thought about this is because sometimes when I'm a little lonely or miss my family, I put on my grandfather's old flannel shirt. It's just one of those silly little comfort things for me. But it got me to thinking about him & his little notes he used to send me in the mail. They were amazing. There was never a time that I got one that I didn't laugh out loud or at least smile. It was always such a nice surprise when I would check my mail (plus they always had money in them so that was an added bonus.) But I miss those notes terribly because they meant so much to me & not because of the money.

When someone takes the time out to write a note or draw a picture or whatever, I just find it to be such a nice gesture. This goes for "Thank You" notes, especially. I understand after weddings you have a lot of these to write out but when someone writes something specifically for me & not a generic one they write to everyone, I will keep the note because I love that they did it. It's just somewhat of a keepsake I suppose. Maybe it's the scrapbooker in me but I always like to see things on paper. [Tangent time: I would HATE it when I would go to a Sweet 16 & as a "Thank You" I would get one of the professional photos that was taken of the Sweet 16 girl. There is absolutely no reason that I would want a professional photo taken of you. Ever. Grandparents/families? Yes. Me? HEEELLLLL NAW! But so anyway, I digress...] I worked with a girl recently that I helped train. When she was moving on to another department, she wrote me a hand-written "Thank You" note. I couldn't get over it, thought it was so nice. I later found out she wrote the same note to another girl, but hey, it's the thought that counts. My mother would love to hear me saying this because she was constantly trying to instill in me the importance of writing "Thank You's". Job well-done, Linda. You did it!

So I understand why people send Christmas cards but they've gotten to the point where they aren't personal anymore, they're more of a pain in the ass than anything. I would love it if in every one of my Christmas cards this year, there was a hand-written note to me, so get on that all 2 of you that send me Christmas cards. But I love to send little cards to my friends for stupid reasons. In fact, I'm going to start doing it more. And maybe draw little pictures inside & cut out jokes for them. Pop Pop would be proud :)

PS I always enjoy writing so much, I really don't know why I don't do it more.